What a wonderful turnout we had for our meeting this week . . . fourteen of us attended and there were a few apologies as well. It's good to know that weaving is alive and well in Marlborough. It's also great to see so many new weavers, getting active and producing work using their own ideas. Good work everyone and don't be afraid to ask for help or advice if you need it.
This month we spent some time studying waffle weave, again making use of the Cross Country Weavers' library samples. What a great service it is.
We also had our bulk purchase of linen-cotton mix from DEA to distribute. It was fun trying to remember what colours we had ordered! We had been drafted into groups of three to work together on tea towels. If Covid19 had not intervened we would have been making them by now and exchanging them at the end of the year. However, the year's disruptions have delayed that to a "to be advised" date in 2021.
As usual, show and tell items varied widely. Here are some of the exhibits:
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| What fun! New weaver Joy has been active with a rigid heddle loom and along the way has learned some techniques. |
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| Betty couldn't wait for the tea towel project; she had a preliminary practice. |
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| Betty's second tea towel. No, it doesn't have a fringe along the side. . .the person holding it is wearing a striped top! |
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| Rose experimented with a two-colour huck pattern from what is now a new library book. It covers many colour and weave combinations in what we normally think of as a one-colour weave. |
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| Chris set off an interesting discussion about what to do with thrums from the loom. She has tied hers together in multi-strands and would them into a ball. Suggestions ranged from knitting with the knotted yarn (if cotton or linen it would make a dishcloth) to making a wool felt ball in the washing machine, to putting the short lengths outside for the birds to incorporate into their nests or otherwise the compost bin. Any more ideas? |
Jolet is another new weaver who obviously has a flair for colour which she has used in her warp and woven with a white weft.
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| Rosemary tried out waffle weave on a large scale. What a cosy blanket this will make! |
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| And on a smaller scale she wove cottons (above and below) in several variations |
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| Big and beautiful! The photo does not do this justice. It is not the work of one of our weavers but was brought along for advice. It is woven in a combination of quite thick unspun roving with pairs of very fine thread between making a lovely pebble texture. Until now its use has been restricted because it sheds the wool fibres too easily. The question was how to stablise it without felting it and losing the surface texture. Advice given by a couple of "old hands" was to "waulk" it in warm water in the bath, treading gently till it "fulls" to just the right amount without turning it into felt. |
There were other items also on show but as they are destined for the Handworks exhibition in November they will be kept under wraps for now. They will be shown here in due course along with other Handworks exhibits.
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